Newcastle Utd v Sunderland: Squad sheets

The game of stripes – the black and white stripes of Newcastle take on the red and white stripes of Sunderland in the northeast derby. As derby matches go this is a big one. The fans of both clubs are as passionate as they come, and both clubs need to win.

While Newcastle Utd managed a top ten finish last season, this season they have failed to replicate the same level of play and are in the bottom half of the table. A run of loss’s could see them being pulled into the relegation dogfight. They have a decent squad and even made it to the Quarter final of the Europa league, but were knocked out of the competition this week by Benfica. A truly incredible run but will their efforts leave their energy running on empty?

As for Sunderland, well, where do you start? They have just sacked their manager Martin O’Neil, they have no form what-so-ever, fourth from bottom in the league and having taken on controversial manager Paolo Di Canio to try and keep them up. It is going to be an interesting run to the end of the season.

Sunderland has been in free fall since October and a loss against Newcastle would leave them in the bottom three. The question(s) is, do the players have the desire to win, does Di Canio have the knowhow to keep them up, what will the implications of a loss to their closest rivals be?